DoD TALON Reports Have Federal Criminal Repercussions- ACLU Files FOIA

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) branches throughout the country filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests yesterday with the Department of Defense (DoD) requesting information relative to alleged surveillance of student protest rallies.^[1] According to a story first reported by NBC News last December, a DoD database of so-called Threat and Local Observation Notices (or TALON Reports) contained information about non-violent activists. But these activities could prove to have important repercussion on federal criminal law beyond the scope of protests and rallies.

Ever since February of 2002, DoD has maintained a network of over 400 civilian and military employees participating in what is known as Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA). Operating underneath the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence, unconfirmed reports throughout the defense establishment regarding supposed “suspicious” activity in and around defense instillations and DoD-sponsored activities are pooled and, at times, shared with relevant law enforcement. Although CIFA is not permitted to “replace or supercede those responsibilities currently assigned to” law enforcement significant intelligence is funneled to both the intelligence and law enforcement arms of government. What, in effect, is happening then, is broad-based government surveillance activity operating largely within the overlooked crevices of Congressional gaze. In practice, this means that within the national security context, government intelligence agencies have more information on those it deems suspect than previously understood. Ultimately, though certainly less intrusive than apparent NSA domestic intercepts, CIFA is much like a species of domestic intelligence collection conducted by DoD, rather than the more narrowly confined members of the law enforcement community.


[1] For more on ACLU FOIA requests, news, etc., see ACLU page here.